A scary, spooky Halloween afternoon tea! Coffin shaped Brie and cranberry sandwiches, sweet potato and feta pastry pumpkins, pumpkin spice scones, and Halloween sugar cookies. These Autumnal recipes are perfect for serving at an October afternoon tea.
How to make a Halloween afternoon tea
Here’s how to make this delicious Halloween afternoon tea, plus some tips and tricks which will make sure your tea turns out perfectly.
Sweet potato and feta pumpkin pastries
These pumpkin pastries are filled with sweet potato, spinach, and feta. Start by making the filling.
Pierce your sweet potato several times with a fork. Place on a plate and microwave for 4-6 minutes until soft. This will depend on the size of your potato(es) and your microwave. Set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan. Fry the onions, stirring frequently, until softened. Add the garlic and fry for a further 2 minutes. Add the spinach and fry until wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Take off the heat and set aside.
Peel the sweet potatoes and scoop the flesh into a large bowl. Mash with a fork until fairly smooth. Add in the onions and spinach and stir to combine. Once cooled, stir through the feta cubes.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan (400°F/350°F).
Unroll your puff pastry. Slice in half lengthways and slice into 4 widthways so you have 8 rectangular pieces of pastry.
Place spoonfuls of the filling onto the centre of each piece of pastry. Wrap the pastry around the filling and pinch the seal.
Take some thread, around 40cm long, and wrap around each pastry 4 times so that the pastry ball is split into 8 segments. Wrap fairly tightly but not so tightly the thread is disappearing into the pastry. Use 100% cotton thread to ensure it is oven-safe.
Arrange the pastries onto a large lined baking tray, spaced at least 3 inches apart. Stick a clove into the top of each pumpkin just to the side of the thread, not in the middle.
Brush each segment with a little egg wash, avoiding brushing over the thread.
Bake for 23-25 minutes until golden brown and puffed up.
Coffin finger sandwiches
Finger sandwiches are a must-have element of any afternoon tea. They can easily be made spooky by slicing them into coffin shapes! You can use any fillings you like, I chose Brie and cranberry sauce as the cranberry looks a little like blood pouring out of the sandwich.
Take two slices of bread. Spread each slice with butter or margarine. Top one slice with cranberry sauce. Top the cranberry sauce with a few slices of Brie. Cover the Brie with a handful of spinach leaves.
Top with the other slice of bread, butter-side down. Using a serrated bread knife, carefully remove the crusts and slice into two sandwiches.
Slice off the corners of the sandwiches to create a coffin shape!
Pumpkin spice scones
A Halloween-themed afternoon tea would not be complete without something pumpkin spiced!
I used once upon a chef’s recipe to make the dough for these scones – click here for the scone recipe.
Lightly dust a work surface and your scone dough. Take the scone dough and roll to 3/4 inch thick. Take a 3 inch circular cookie cutter and cut out 6 scones.
Place onto lined baking trays and bake for 15 minutes, you will know they’re done when the bottoms are slightly browned. Allow to cool on the baking tray for a further 15 minutes.
Break in half with your hands, and spread generously with clotted cream.
If you can’t find all of the ingredients there are a few substitutions you can make! I replaced the pumpkin purée with puréed baked sweet potato flesh. I also substituted the molasses with black treacle.
Halloween sugar cookies
I used Recipe tin eat’s recipe to make the dough for these vanilla sugar cookies – click here for the sugar cookie recipe.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan (350°F/320°F).
Lightly dust a work surface and the cookie dough with flour. Roll out your dough to around 5mm thick. Using a 2.5 inch circular cookie cutter, cut out your cookies. Re-roll until all of your cookie dough has been used up.
Place onto lined baking trays leaving 2 inches between each cookie. Bake for 10 minutes.
Now, take your writing icing and create some spooky Halloween designs!
Halloween afternoon tea: similar recipes
If you liked this recipe, check out more of my similar recipes:
Recipes used:
ONCE UPON A CHEF PUMPKIN SPICE SCONE RECIPE
RECIPE TIN EATS VANILLA COOKIE RECIPE
Halloween Afternoon Tea
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan (400°F/350°F).
- Pierce your sweet potato several times with a fork. Place on a plate and microwave until soft, 4-5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Meanwhile heat your olive oil in a medium frying pan over a medium heat. Add your onions and fry until softened, stirring often. Add the garlic and fry for a further 2 minutes.
- Add the spinach and fry until it has just wilted. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- Peel the sweet potatoes and scoop out the flesh into a large bowl. Mash with a fork until fairly smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir through the onion mixture.
- Once cooled, fold through the feta cubes.
- Roll out the pastry. Slice in half lengthways and into 4 widthways, so you are left with 8 rectangles. Place spoonfuls of the mixture onto the centre of each rectangle until you have used up all of the filling.
- Wrap the pastry around the filling and pinch to seal. Wrap a length of thread, around 40cm, around the pumpkin 4 times to divide it into 8 segments. The thread should be fairly tight but not digging into the pastry.
- Arrange the pastries well spaced out on a lined baking tray. Stick a clove into the top of each pastry, just to the side of the thread. Brush with egg wash, avoiding brushing over the thread.
- Bake for 22-25 minutes until golden and puffed up.
- Take your six slices of bread and spread them all with a little butter.
- Spread three of the slices with 2 tbsp of cranberry sauce each.
- Arrange the Brie slices over the cranberry sauce and top with a handful of spinach.
- Top with the remaining bread slices, butter side down.
- Using a serrated bread knife carefully remove all of the crusts and slice each sandwich in half. Now slice off the corners to make your sandwiches coffin shaped.
- Lightly flour a work surface. Place the dough onto the surface and dust with a little more flour. Roll your scone dough to 2cm/¾inch thick. Using a 3 inch cookie cutter cut out 6 scones, re-roll as necessary. Place onto lined baking trays, well spaced apart.
- Bake for 15 minutes, they will be ready when slightly browned underneath.
- Leave to cool for a further 15 minutes on the tray. Break in half and spread with the clotted cream.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan (350°F/320°F).
- Lightly dust a work surface and the cookie dough with flour. Roll out your cookie dough to 5mm thick.
- Using a 2½ inch cookie cutter cut out your cookies and space onto lined baking trays. Re-roll the dough and cut out more until you have used up all of the dough.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Leave until completely cooled before decorating with spooky designs with your writing icing!
such cute ideas!
Terrifyingly good!